A mob lynched another man on Thursday night over suspicion of being a child-lifter at Asanboni village in Jadugora thana area, about 40km from Jamshedpur, making it the second killing and fourth assault within 24 hours from Wednesday night in the ambit of the same police station.

The second lynching took place around 10pm in the village even as policemen in sizeable numbers from Jadugora thana were patrolling the block, especially Ichra and Dukru villages where local residents had fatally beaten up a man suspecting him to be a child thief the night before.

The battered body, with injuries on face, head and chest, was found lying at Asanboni village about 10km away from Jadugora thana around 10pm. The deceased, aged around 32, has not been identified. Like the body of the 40-year-old unidentified victim on Wednesday night, the police on Friday sent this one to MGM Medical College mortuary in Dimna, Jamshedpur.

Mosabani DSP Ajit Kumar Vimal said from injuries it appeared villagers had hit the 32-year-old man with boulders.

"Even as we were alert at night in Ichra and Dukru village areas where the first lynching had taken place on Wednesday night, villagers lynched another man at Asanboni, 10km from the thana and 6km from Ichra. Our limitation was that the place was completely dark," Vimal said.

He admitted that the tribal-dominated Jadugora block was tense.

"In view of the villagers' mood, we have convened a meeting of mukhiyas and gram panchayat sevaks at Jadugora thana on Saturday evening where we will try to convince them that nothing like child-stealing has occurred as has been rumoured," the DSP said. "I am moving about with policemen in Jadugora interiors and appealing to people not to pay heed to child-lifting rumours."

Hawkers from outside Jadugora, who have been plying their trade for years in the block, stayed away on Friday. "I regularly go to villages in Jadugora block to sell plastic items but did not venture today (Friday). Seems risky to go hawking there. People are angry and confused about any outsider it seems," Subhash Pramanik of Potka block said.

On Friday, police released Saddam Ansari of Mosabani and Sujit Sen of Bengal, who villagers beat up on Thursday on suspicion of their being child-lifters. Jadugora OC Uttam Kumar Tiwary said there was no evidence of their involvement in any such case as had been alleged by villagers.